‘Sex and the City’: Candace Bushnell Was Paid Very Little for the Rights to Her Book
Fans know and love Sex and the City as one of the most iconic shows to ever air on TV. The HBO dramedy aired from 1998 to 2004. The New York City-based series followed best friends Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis). The four women navigated their careers and their personal relationships.
The series was based on Candace Bushnell’s iconic ’90s column, which she turned into a book. However, she was paid very little for her rights to the book.
‘Sex and the City’ is loosely based on Candace Bushnell’s life
Bushnell’s book Sex and the City was actually made up in the columns that she wrote from 1994 to 1996. In the New York Observer column, she wrote about her own personal dating life. She also interviewed other people about their dating, sex lives, and other New York City misadventures.
In addition to Sex and the City, Bushnell went on to publish, Four Blondes, Trading Up, Lipstick Jungle, and One Fifth Avenue.
Lipstick Jungle was made into a series as well. It went on to become a television series as well starring Brooke Shields that aired in 2008.
Candace Bushnell was paid very little for her rights to ‘Sex and the City’
When it came time for creator Darren Star to begin developing Sex and the City for television. When Lipstick Jungle was picked up to series, Deadline reported on Bushnell’s SATC deal,
Bushnell sold the rights to Sex and The City producer Darren Star for a mere $60,000 way back in 1996. Asked about her payday from the deal, Bushnell back in 2005 confirmed to Radar that she’d taken the opportunity to cash out long before Sex And The City took off and said it was “highly unlikely” that she’d ever see a dime from its syndication.
This is how ‘Sex and the City’ really began
Bushnell’s idea for Sex and the City began when she was working as a writer for the New York Observer. An old boys club through and through, the writer was approached by then-editor-in-chief Peter Kaplan. “I said, ‘I think it should be about me and my friends, who are all single and crazy,'” Bushnell told The Hollywood Reporter. Kaplan actually came up with the title “Sex and the City,” and the highly popular column launched from there.
The column ran for two years and was so wildly popular that people were buying the Observer just to read it. “It absolutely could have gone on longer, but for me, I’d never seen myself as a journalist,” Bushnell explained. “Everything I was writing at that time was just a way to give me an entrée into writing fiction, which the column certainly did.
